BLOOMING GOOD TIME...

      "I love tranquil solitude and such society as is quiet, wise and good." (Percy B. Shelley)
I think he was talking about the cool shady space that is the bench under the grapes. When I DO sit down, it is there......

 Buddleia.....huge this year....dark blue. More blue than other years. Has to be the fertilizer I threw all over. It is planted by the stairs, and I've had to cut it back so people can get by.

              Purple Lilies. Huge this year. Last year they just withered away in the wet. I think I like these lilies best....a photo doesn't really do them justice.They are more like mottled eggplant..

 Didn't give fertilizer to the ferns. But they're HUGE anyways...have had to cut them back so the Heads can breathe.

 "Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put into this world to rise above." (Katherine Hepburn)
 Love Katherine Hepburn. Not sure what she would say if she saw my greenhouse.....everything is HUGE this year..

The  Rhodochiton is behaving itself exactly as it should..overflowing and purple bells all over.

 "Sowe Carrets in your Gardens, and humbly praise God for them, as for a singular and great blessing." (Richard Gardinar b 1533..english writer)

 And the tickseed is  poofing up everywhere. This poor Head looks like he is snorting the yellow flowers.............

 "The gardener does not love to talk, he makes me keep the gravel walk; and when he puts his tools away; he locks the door and takes the key...." (R. L. Stevenson)

....And of course, then there's Spencer. He and his brother, Smokey,  come to visit every day to supervise. What could be better? 
      "Cats seem to go on the principle that it never does any harm to ask for what you want."
                                          (J. W. Krutch, 1893-1970, American naturalist)

SWEET PEAS...ad infinitum...

 Don't really need to say much.....sweet peas are my favourite of all. They are royal flowers.First discovered by the Earl of Spencer , way back when, in Spain. Then brought back to England.

 Those packets of seeds you buy at the local hardware store, the packets labelled "Royal Spencer Mix"....well, that's Princess Diana's family.

     They are a flower of remembrance. No wonder their scent is so heady and intoxicating.

 When you walk by you can smell their perfume....it's soft and warm.

 I planted TONS of sweet peas this year, to be sure of a good crop. I may go nuts trying to pick them, but it will be worth it.

 The more you pick, the more sweet peas will bloom. If you leave them on their vines too long they turn into seed pods. Kind of like a movie I know............

 I have them blooming in the sun, blooming in pots, shade, more sun, more shade......

 In vast, messy groups that are interesting to navigate when picking . Mostly
"knee-hi" varieties, in clumps. The traditional ones I scattered in hanging baskets and near large sunflowers so they could climb.

   And they keep on coming..........and coming..............  

 Can't get enough of them. Never want to be tired of seeing them or their scent.

THE BENCH

 If that bench could speak . Almost didn't get a bench for  under the grapevines.

  It is a great place to be. Spencer  , our neighbour's sweet cat, likes to get attention from whichever person just happens to be sitting there. Today, it was Dale.

 The deer come into the back yard off and on. Smetimes they will run their faces on the edge of the bench.  Usually, the deer are more concerned with eating the flowers.

 And thinking this place is some sort of park.

 And getting tooooooo close to one another.

 That's when one retreats from the bench and hides in the house. The deer have sharp hooves that make a resounding " thunk" when they stamp the ground.

 Sweet peas grow up around the bench.

 Grey cat. Poor grey cat.......he's disappeared.His owners must miss him.  He used to hide beside the bench and  watch birds.

 And there's always the deer. Eating the flowers. Eating the plums. The one time I forgot to spray with Bobbexx.......remembered later .

 And the knee hi sweet peas popping up on their vines. All around the bench. My favourite place to perch when I have the time. Especially after the deer have left the garden....

June Collage

"Our Creator would never have made such lovely days, and have given us the deep hearts to enjoy

....them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal" (Hawthorne)

"Glad that I live am I, that the sky is blue, glad for the country lanes, and the fallof dew" L. W. Reese)

"The thought that is beautiful is the thought to cherish. The word that is beautiful is worthy to endure." (B.Bailey)

"I took a day to search for God. And found Him not. But as I trod by rocky ledge, through woods untamed, I saw His footprint in the sod." (Bliss Carman)

"We who play under the pines, we who dance in the snow that shines blue in the light of the mon, sometimes halt as we go. Stand with our ears erect, our noses testing the air, to gaze at the golden world, behind the windows there." ( Elizabeth Coatsworth)

 Smoky and Spencer.................................

Cordelia in her haven.

"Joy is the mainspring in the whole of ednless Nature's calm rotation." (Schiller)

"My heart was once a garden by dim, enchanted trees, with hint of untouched violets and shy anenomes.  (Noel Lane)

Rhodociton.......starting to take over  in the greenhouse.

"It is only through the morning gate of the beautiful that you can penetrate into the realm of knowledge. That which we feel here as beauty we shall one day know as truth." (Schiller)Cordelia  in her greenhouse.

"Back country roads,and cawing crows, stone walls with stiles going over, daisies, queen ann's lace, clocer, night tunes of crickets , frog songs, too, starched cotton cloth, the colour blue, bells that ring from white church steeple, friendly dogs and friendly people." (E. Ellen Long)

"In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful, and the beautiful things that God makes are His gift to all alike. " (Harriet Beecher Stowe)

"Every child should know a hill, and the clean joy of running down its long slop with the wind in his hair. He should know a tree, the comfort of its cool lap of shade, and the supple strength of its arms......." (E. C. Joll)

"Today I have grown taller with walking with the trees the seven sister-poplars that go softly in a line, and I think my heart is whiter  for its parley with a star, that trembled out at nightfall and hung above the pine." (Karle Wilson Baker)

"I cannot hold thee close enough thy winds, thy wide grey skies. Thy mists that roll and rise. My sould is all but out of me, let fall no burning leaf, prithee, let no bird call....." (Edna St. Vincent Millay)

"We are living in a world of beauty but how few of us open our eyes to see it! They are ours for the asking, all our own to have and to enjoy; if we only desire them enough." (Lorado Taft)

 

 First Sweet pea of the season.......................bring them on!

Sog of a Day.......

 Rain, rain, go away...it's June ......not November in case you haven't noticed.

 Shasta Daisy petals  getting squashed by the rain.

 Wild  roses  spotted with pink,  made of sterner stuff than the cabbage roses.

 Driving, driving in the endless rain.........don't worry I wasn't multi-tasking.

 Verbeena seems to like the rain. It is always perfect.

 Grape leaves love the rain. It collects on the leaves and plops on the muddy ground beneath.

And Dale's truck. It holds neat rocks, puddled in rain water. The truck used to hold playmobil and dolls and sand. A poignant reminder of  summers a while back. I think there was rain then.